The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi

Organization of the Hopi Is the Ou

AL ST

e of this people, this bulletin proposes to show that an intimate connection exists between their ritual acts, their moral standard

e that they constitute a treasure-trove for the archaeologist, and especially the anthropologist, for these sources tell us of the struggles, t

rld as we now see them, so does the anthropologist discover in the myths and legends of a people the dim traces of their origin and development till these come out in the stronger light of historical time. And it is at this point that the ethn

Research on Basic Belie

nize a close similarity in numerous practices and because we are accustomed to believe in the unity of the world and life. So it may still be our safest procedure to secure better records of tribal traditional beliefs and to deal wi

ians, and Junod for the Ekoi of West Africa; but it appears that the anthropological problem of basic b

ning and Function

significance of mythology, since there is some, indeed much, difference of opinio

etic, contemplative and poetical character. To writers of this school every myth has as its kernel or essence some natural phenomenon or other, even though such idea is not apparent upon the surface

oth history and natural environment have left a profound imprint on all cultural achievement, including mythology, but we are not justified in regarding all mythology as historical chronicle, nor yet as the poetical musings of primitive naturalists. The primitive does indeed put something of historical record and something

ent, in his needs spiritual and his needs physical, and this immense service comes through religious ritual, mo

t, Sir James Frazer, and by classical scholars like Miss Jane Harrison. The myth is the Bible of the primitive, and just as our Sacred Stor

iction such as our novel, but is a living reality, believed to have once happened in primeval t

truth or precept. And here we do recognize symbolism, much in the nature of historical record. But the special class of stories regarded by the primitive as sacred, his sacred myths, are embodied in ritual, morals, and social organiza

s a precedent which constitutes an ideal and a warrant for its continuance, and sometimes furnishes practical directions for the procedure. He feels that those who consider the myths of the savage as mere crude stories made up

rs on the subject, we would refer the reader to the discussion of myth under the head